語言功能異常是孤獨癥譜系障礙(ASD)的典型癥狀之一。1957年,斯金納從行為學角度提出"言語行為",認為人們獲得表達和理解語言的能力與學會走路、跳舞等行為的原理相同。2001年,海斯等人在斯金納的基礎上提出關于人類語言和認知的新視角——關系框架理論(Relational Frame Theory,RFT),澄清了語言的推衍性實質,認為言語行為是將一個刺激與其他刺激建立關系框架的過程。研究表明基于RFT的多范例訓練可以提升ASD患者的推衍關系反應水平,且推衍關系反應與語言和認知功能的發展高相關。未來RFT的研究可以探索如何通過推衍關系反應訓練修復ASD患者的語言和認知功能缺陷。

Language dysfunction is one of the core symptoms of children with autism spectrum disorders. In 1957, Skinner put forward the concept of Verbal Behavior. He believed that the underlying process of learning to comprehend and speak language is fundamentally similar to the process of other observable behaviors, such as walking and dancing. In 2001, based on the theoretical foundation of verbal behavior, Hayes et.al proposed a new perspective of human language and cognition, Relational Frame Theory, which explains linguistic generativity in terms of learned contextually controlled relational responding referred to as relational framing. It predicts that language, especially the derived relational responding ability of children with ASD, could be learned via multiple exemplar training. Researches on ASD revealed that the enhancement of relational responding was related with the improvement of linguistic and cognitive competence. Future research could explore the learning model based on RFT to repair the language and cognition dysfunction of children with ASD.